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Saskatoon Starphoenix: University of Saskatchewan alums donate $2 million in honour of ‘role model’ David Kaplan

In honour of their former professor and mentor at the University of Saskatchewan, a pair of graduates have made the largest donation ever by alumni to the College of Arts and Science.

Xiaoping (Bob) Xu and wife Ling Chen donated $2 million to the college to create the David L. Kaplan Chair in Music. Kaplan, who taught for more than three decades, was named to the Order of Canada in 2002 and awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in 2006. In 2015, he died at the age of 91.

Both Xu and Chen have master’s degrees in music from the U of S. They previously donated $1 million in 2010 to establish the David L. Kaplan Music Scholarship.

“He embraced us with profound love and care when we first arrived to Canada from China in the 1980s as graduate students,” Xu said in a statement.

“His strength of character, warmth and unconditional devotion to his students serve as the model by which we, and countless others, live our lives. The way he treated us left a deep impression on me, and I thought of him as a role model as I started my own career as a consultant for Chinese students who wanted to study overseas.”

After returning to China, Xu co-founded New Oriental Education & Technology Group, China’s largest private education provider, and also established ZhenFund, which supports innovation among youth in China. In 2016, Xu was named one of the world’s top 100 venture capitalists by Forbes magazine.

The Kaplan Chair is expected to be in place by July 2018, according to the U of S.